News Updates

The naacp has withdrawn a motion to reintroduce 19 suburban school
districts to a Cincinnati school-desegregation case.

The move effectively ends an eight-year legal effort on the part of
the naacp to include the suburban districts in Bronson v. The
Cincinnati Board of Education, a city desegregation suit filed in
1974.

However, said Reginald Govan, special counsel to the naacp, "our
ending of this phase of litigation should not be interpreted [to
indicate] that the naacp is backing away from its historic commitment
to pursuing school desegregation on a countywide basis." That
commitment, said Mr. Govan, will be pursued through "other routes than
litigation."

The case against the city district ended in February with an
out-of-court settlement that allows the board of education the
flexibility to determine its own means of desegregating its schools.
(See Education Week, Feb. 29, 1984.) The suburban districts had been
dismissed from the case the previous December by U.S. District Judge
Walter H. Rice, who said the naacp had failed to prove that the actions
of those districts had any effect on school segregation in the
city.

However, last month, the naacp petitioned the judge to reconsider
the dismissal. Mr. Govan said the naacp's decision to withdraw that
motion stemmed from a concern that "we were pursuing a very narrow
legal theory" in attempting to prove the suburban districts contributed
to segregation in Cincin

Union and school officials were still working last week to end teacher
strikes in at least four states. (See Education Week, Sept. 12,
1984.)

More than 6,000 students were3still on vacation last week as a
strike by teachers in St. John the Baptist Parish (La.) Public Schools
went into its third week.

Several strikes in Michigan have been settled and teachers are back
at work in Atherton, Bronson, East China, Gull Lake, River Rouge, and
Saline. Another strike began, however, in Waverly on Sept. 17.

The longest and largest strike so far this fall is in Rockford,
Ill., and it continued last week, affecting about 29,000 students. A
strike began on Sept. 17 in Shiller Park, but Illinois teachers have
gone back to work in the Bremen, Kildeer-Countryside, Sterling, and
Urbana school districts.

Strike activity heated up in Pennsylvania last week when teachers
went out in Big River Falls, Mohawk, and Springfield Township, but
school and union officials reached contract agreements last week in
Tulpehocken and York school districts, ending strikes there.

Strike activity also ended in the Exeter-West Greenwich (R.I.)
school district and in Mainland, N.J.

The National Institute of Education's controversial new research center
on technology in education recently announced the selection of several
"targets of difficulty" that will spur its first research efforts.

According to the Harvard University-based Educational Technology
Center, the targets, defined as obstacles to learning that can impede
further academic progress, were selected by working groups composed of
teachers, researchers, and cognitive psychologists.

Nine initial research projects emerged from the groups' discussions.
Among them are: an examination of computer software designed to
alleviate student confusion about the concepts of weight and density;
an exploration of computer-based methods to help students learn to
solve mathematical word problems; and an investigation of the cognitive
consequences of computer-education and programming courses in other
curriculum areas.

The technology center is the first of the 17 new laboratories and
centers funded by nie. Alleged improprieties in the awarding of the
contract for the center resulted in an investigation by the General
Accounting Office, which cleared the institute's director, Manuel
Justiz, of any wrongdoing. (See Education Week, Aug. 22, 1984.)

The former coach of the Yonkers (N.Y.) High School football team,
Ronald Santavicca, last week filed a $20-million lawsuit against the
district's superintendent and board of education, and the city of
Yonkers for "defamation of character and intentional infliction of
emotional distress."

According to the suit, the defendants "maliciously, willfully, and
with ill will" made false statements about Mr. Santavicca in the wake
of the death of Fernando A. Guedes, a football player who died of heart
failure during the opening game of his team's season 11 months ago.
(See Education Week, Jan 11, 1984.)

According to Jack Solerwitz, the lawyer representing Mr. Santavicca,
the former coach has been "blacklisted" from obtaining new coaching
positions at high schools in the Yonkers area ever since he received a
letter of reprimand from the district.

Gov. Thomas H. Kean of New Jersey is expected to sign into law a bill
approved by the legislature this month to provide $40 million over four
years to help school districts remove crumbling asos from their
buildings. The bill requires districts to arrange for the state health
department to inspect for the material; if it is found, officials may
apply to the state for a grant covering up to 75 percent of the
encapsulation or removal cost.

The legislature acted in the wake of a state report charging that
hundreds of schools were not certified as safe to open on schedule.
(See Education Week, Sept. 12, 1984.) After hurried state inspections
in recent weeks, all but a handful of schools have opened.

The Governor has conditionally vetoed a bill to require the
licensing and regulation of companies engaged in asbestos removal. He
recommended involving the state health department in the licensing and
urged lawmakers to require that people who do asbestos work undergo a
course of training and pass an examination before being issued a state
permit.

Vol. 04, Issue 04

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